Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera. As of 2018, 197 species of megabat had been described. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Megabats have several adaptations for flight, including rapid oxygen consumption, the ability to sustain heart rates of more than 700 beats per minute, and large lung volumes.
About Megabat in brief
Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera. As of 2018, 197 species of megabat had been described. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Megabats have several adaptations for flight, including rapid oxygen consumption, the ability to sustain heart rates of more than 700 beats per minute, and large lung volumes. Most megabats are nocturnal or crepuscular, although a few species are active during the daytime. Most species are primarily frugivorous and several are nectarivorous. They reach sexual maturity slowly and have a low reproductive output. A quarter of all species are listed as threatened, mainly due to habitat destruction and overhunting. They’re also of interest to those involved in public health as they are natural reservoirs of several viruses that can affect humans. The megabAT family contains the largest bat species, with individuals of some species weighing up to 1. 45 kg and having wingspans up to1. 7 m. Not all megabatter species are large-bodied; nearly a third of allspecies weigh less than 50 g. They can be differentiated from other bats due to their dog-like faces, clawed second digits, and reduced uropatagium. They rely on keen senses of sight and smell to navigate and locate food. They roost in trees or caves.
Some species roost alone, while others form colonies of up to a million individuals. They have one offspring at a time after a pregnancy of four to six months. A few species have a high reproductive output, meaning that after a population loss their numbers are slow to rebound. The family was first described in 1821 by British zoologist John Edward Gray. He named the family \”Pteropidae\” and placed it within the now-defunct order Fructivorae. In 2001, George Edward Dobson was the first to split the family into two suborders: Megachi and Microchichi. He selected these names to allude to the body size differences of the two groups, with many fruit-eating bats being larger than insect-eating insects. The only family not included within A. A. Dobson’s split was the only family included within the order Megachi, which he selected to include microbats and microbats. The results in 230 results in the name A. Dobson. The name Pteropus was corrected in 1838 by French biologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. It is one of two superfamilies in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera, the other being A. Cephalotes. The word pteropus is from the stem word, Latinizing the prefix “pter-” meaning “foot”. It comes from Ancient Greek ‘pterón’ meaning ‘wing’ and ‘possum’.
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This page is based on the article Megabat published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
